Sanbō Kyōdan was founded by Yasutani Haku'un in 1954. It is rooted in the thinking of Harada Daiun Sogaku, a Sōtō priest who also studied with Rinzai priests.[1] Both Harada Roshi and Yasutani Roshi were strong promoters of Zen practice for lay practitioners, and for people of other (non-Buddhist, non-Asian) faith communities and cultures. Their openness to lay practitioners was in line with the modernizing tendency of the Meiji restoration, which began in 1868. Starting in this period, various Zen institutions began to give permission to lay followers to practice Zen.[note 1]

The leaders of the Sanbo Kyodan were involved in the contemporary social and cultural developments in Japan, which followed the abandonment of the mediaeval feudal system and its opening up to foreign influences and modern western technology and culture. The association of some of them with the fierce militaristic nationalism of the mid-20th century Empire of Japan has become controversial.[2] Among Yamada Koun's friends and associates were Soen Nakagawa,[3] a strong supporter of Japanese imperialism,[4] and Yasutani Roshi's own position has been the subject of arguments. Within Japanese Buddhism, there was a development of Buddhist modernism,[5][6] but also a tendency to support the autocratic regime in the interest of survival.[2][6]

Although the membership of Sanbō Kyōdan is small (3,790 registered followers and 24 instructors in 1988[6]), "the Sanbõkyõdan has had an inordinate influence on Zen in the West".[6]

Westerners involved with Sanbō Kyōdan, including a number of Roman Catholics, promoted its teachings in North America and Europe in the latter half of the 20th century and early 21st century. One early American Zen member was Philip Kapleau, author of The Three Pillars of Zen. Kapleau studied under Harada Sōgaku in Obama and Yasutani Haku'un in greater Tokyo in the 1950s and 1960s, but never received formal dharma transmission, and started his own lineage. Other influential teachers who studied with Yasutani and started their own organizations included Robert Aitken and Taizan Maezumi. In Europe the Sanbō Kyōdan was associated particularly with Roman Catholic practitioners such as Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle and others.

The Sanbō Kyōdan has not been immune from controversies concerning the immoral behaviour of Zen teachers, including Eido Tai Shimano,[3] a student of Soen Nakagawa and associate of Yasutani and Yamada, who has been accused of sexually abusing lay American practitioners.[7] Dane Gifford a graduate student of Roshi Philip Kapleau, and then abbot of the Toronto Zen Centre, lost his recognition as a teacher due to his improper sexual conduct with students at both the Toronto and Polish centres at which he taught. [8]

Yasutani's lineage has grown rapidly, constituting one of the largest Zen-networks in the USA, though several of Yasutani's dharma heirs, or of his successor Yamada Koun, have left the Sanbo Kyodan and started their own organisations.[9]

The Sanbō Kyōdan was also influential in introducing charismatic authority in western Zen, by its dependency on the authority of Yasutani,[10] while simultaneously standing outside the mainstream of Japanese Zen. It was implemented into a culture which is unaware of the specific characteristics of Japanese culture regarding authority.[11][12] The stress on kensho as means of authority, coupled to the primacy of maintaining the correct Dharma transmission, led to institutional problems when Yasutani's heir Yamada Koun died.[10] Seeing one's nature gives an autonomous confirmation of Zen's ultimate truth, which may conflict with the need to maintain institutions and traditions.[note 2]

Yasutani's support for the Japanese military's aggression against other Asian countries, most of which were Buddhist, was criticised after World War II. The publication of Brian Victoria's Zen at War[2] led to a public apology by Kubota Ji'un, the 3rd Abbot of Sanbō Kyōdan.[web 1]

^See Sharf (1995-C) [13] for an exposition of the problems that the Sanbo Kyodan faced, after the death of Yamada Koun. As Sharf notes:

"[C]harisma can spread too widely, and the resulting centripetal forces pull the organisation apart, with new sects spinning off in several directions".[14]

"[T]he Sanbō Kyōdan would not survive long were it to elevate every student with kensho to the status of master".[14]

"The institution would have little chance of survival were it not to balance claims concerning the ultimacy and autonomy of kensho with a course of training that inspires obedience and loyalty to the tradition".[14]

These remarks also seem to apply to USA-zen, which lacks central authority, despite the formal ties to Soto-shu of many groups.